'A shame' wetlands funding not in basin plan

The Conservation Council of South Australia says new funding to rejuvenate flood plains in the Riverland should have been included in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

Yesterday, the Federal Government announced $100 million in funding to restore native fish populations and river red gums at the Pike and Katarapko wetlands.

It comes on top of $55 million of existing funding for projects to support the state's wetlands.

The funding will be spent on the installation of regulators, to direct environmental water onto the wetlands.

The council's professor Dianne Bell says it is a good step but should have been incorporated in the basin plan, to provide greater certainty and direction.

"What a shame that what we are doing is adding things on rather than making them part of a total integrated plan," she said.

"If it were in the plan we would know that it was built into our future blueprint, our future understanding, our future funding and our future requirements that ... our healthy river had to deliver to all the things that were targeted."

Detailed planning and design work to deliver the projects will start soon.

Meanwhile, the basin plan has been tabled in Federal Parliament.

The plan must be tabled in Parliament for 15 days, during which it could be voted down.

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